Donnerstag, 23. August 2012

Since the Fukushima catastrophe, several politicians, publishers, "scientists" and journalists tried to sell us the story that nothing happened in Fukushima. We knew better from the beginning but the studies and results from the last week regarding the effect of Fukushima radiation on wild life has shown us once more, how dangerous nuclear power really is. First of all, a study was published on Muration in butterflies around Fukushima. A large number of butterflies showes deformities in larvae and also in adult animals with deformed wings, antennae and eyes in several generations:Radiation that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant following last year's tsunami caused mutations in some butterflies — including dented eyes and stunted wings — though humans seem relatively unaffected, researchers say.The mutations are the first evidence that the radiation has caused genetic changes in living organisms. (via kval.com)It is likely that the first generation of butterflies suffered both physical damage fromradiation sicknessand genetic damage from the massive exposure to radioactive isotopes after the disaster, the researchers reported. This generation passed on their genetic mutations to their offspring, who then acquired their own genetic defects from eating radioactive leaves and from exposure to low levels of radiation remaining in the environment. The cumulative effect caused successive generations to develop more serious physical abnormalities. "Note that every generation was continuously exposed," said Otaki.

Mousseau said, "This study adds to the growing evidence that low-dose radiation can lead to significant increases in mutations and deformities in wild animal populations."

The findings are consistent with previous studies in Japan and at Chernobyl, Mousseau added. "The ecological studies that we have conducted found that the entire butterfly community in Fukushima was depressed in radioactive areas, as were the birds, and that the patterns seen in Fukushima were similar to what has been observed in Chernobyl. If the plants and animals are mutating and dying, this should be cause for significant public concern." (via livescience.com)

As a comparison: the highest caesium contamination found in a wild bore in Western Europe after the Chernobyl incident was 4900bq/kg in a Bavarian wild boar. Japanese Fishermen are not allowed to fish in the zone where this fish was caught, but the fishery exclusion zone spreads only a small area of 30 square miles.

Today, Nuclear activists around the world were shocked to hear that:The operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said Tuesday it had found 25,800 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive caesium in greenling, 258 times higher than the government safety standard. Fishing in waters off the plant has been voluntarily restricted since the nuclear disaster at the plant, which went into meltdown after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Less than a month after the start of the disaster, Tokyo Electric dumped more than 11,000 tons of wastewater containing radioactive substances into the Pacific. (via times.co.za)

The radiation was caused by a meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima power plant after it was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The disaster was so intense that contaminated fish were caught all the way across the Pacific Ocean, on the California coast. But it’s not only aquatic life that is suffering from side effects of the leaked radiation. According to researchers, the radiation has caused mutations in some butterflies, giving them dented eyes, malformed legs and antennae, and stunted wings. The results show the butterflies were deteriorating both physically and genetically. But the harmful risks don’t stop with butterflies. The radioactivity which seeped into the region’s air and water has left humans facing potentially life threatening health issues. Over a third of Fukushima children are at risk of developing cancer, according to the Sixth Report of Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey.The report shows that nearly 36 per cent of children in the Fukushima Prefecture have abnormal thyroid growths which pose a risk of becoming cancerous. (Via R.T)

Since these figures come from Tepco itself it is hard ower really is. After the Chernobyl Event, the European Union raised the limit from 30 Bq/kg to 360bq/kg allowing especially Eastern European mushroom and other farming products to be still imported to the E.U.

The health effect on children also becomes more and more threatening. Over a third of the kids of Fukushima are threatened by cancer or lumps:

After examining more than 38,000 children from the area, medics found that more than 13,000 have cysts or nodules as large as 5 millimeters on their thyroids, the Sixth Report of Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey states. In comparison, a 2001 analysis by the Japan Thyroid Association found that fully zero per cent of children in the city of Nagasaki, which suffered a nuclear attack in August of 1945, had nodules, and only 0.8 per cent had cysts on their thyroids, reports the Telegraph. Radiation enters the body and is distributed through soft tissue, especially in muscle, and then accumulates in the thyroid. It is this accumulation that can potentially lead to cancer. "Yes, 35.8 per cent of children in the study have lumps or cysts, but this is not the same as cancer,"says Naomi Takagi, an associate professor at Fukushima University Medical School Hospital, which administered the tests.(via rt.com)

In another interesting contribution, Dr.Tsubokura Shoji from the Institute of Medical Science at Tokyo University who spends 2 weeks a months in Minamisoma City General Hospital where he gives support to families affected by the Fukushima disaster. The internal specialist and hematologist describes the following cases of people contaminated by eating local food like shiitake mushrooms and vegetables:

"A man in his 70-year-old and has consulted screening WBC. It was a result of 20000Bq (!) / Body cesium-134 and 137 together about the results...

Was consulted along with the wife. The result was a result of a total of about 10000Bq/body. Also fix per body weight, and 300Bq/kg. It has come to our inspection look at several hospitals, some of the highest value that I have seen in Japan so far. There is also the value as scattered in the report, such as Belarus. This person was a referral from a certain married couple actually. Another couple is visited a couple of weeks ago, the total cesium 14000Bq/body husband, wife that I was about 8000Bq/body. When asked about the diet, it was that you eat every day and shiitake stop shipment was decided early, leek or make yourself, you can come to collect near you, bamboo shoots, dried persimmons, and garlic" (via Health Blog of Asahi.com)

Donnerstag, 9. August 2012

For many years now, scientists and
biologists tried to grasp the effect of the aftermath of the 1986
nuclear catastrophe on biological wildlife. One of the most
contaminated areas following the event is a strip of 10 to 15
km²
of Scots pine wood (lat. pinus silvestris) The most affected zone is
approximately 2 km away from the power station:

“(the) Zone
suffered a complete loss of conifers with partial damage to hardwoods
(the so-called "Red forest"). Scholars estimate that the
level of absorbed doses of external gamma radiation exposure in
1986–1987 was 8000–10000, with the maximum extent of the dose was
500 mR/h and more. The total area of this zone is approximately 400
hectares. In this zone, the pine tree trunks completely died and pine
needles exhibited a brick color. The entire forest was virtually
"burned down"—having accumulated a significant amount of
radioactive emissions. Heavy radioactive contamination of the dead
trees led to their burial. On the territory of the "Red Forest",
immediate actions were implemented to restore the forests” (1)

Inside
of that zone heavy mutations were imminent: Pine trees looked more
like bushes then trees, gigantism and also deformity in the branches
were very common. The less affected zones don't show as many
deformities, nevertheless, the trees suck up radionucleides and
especially wildfires are an important risk for releasing more
radioactivity trough smoke clouds that could easily affect all of
Europe.

In
1992, a large wildfire burnt down undetected and released massive
amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere. To this date, nothing
is known about the consequences of the great fire of 1992. Sergiy
Zibtsev, a professor from the Forestry Institute at the Kiev
University of Life Sciences is one of the few international experts
on the issue. Recently dispatched to Japan to ascertain the risks of
the Fukushima Daiich'i Nuclear Meltdowns to the wildlife in the
region. Zibtsev has worked for almost 20 years in the concerned
Chernobyl region, trying to figure out the risks and development of
forest life. He also coordinates with the 100 firefighters
permanently stationed in the area to spot wildfires:

Firefighters
in Chernobyl have one of the least enviable jobs in the world. They
spend all day up rusty Soviet watchtowers, which sway in the wind
like tin-box metronomes, and act as conductors to the huge lightning
storms which swing across the land most afternoons in summer, often
sparking fires. When they spot a wildfire, the firefighters
triangulate its location by radio. Teams jump aboard big, red, Soviet
fire trucks, and lumber along cracked, overgrown roads to the source
of the blaze...They believe they know when they are fighting a
radioactive fire - they experience a tingling, metallic sensation in
their skin - but they do not fully understand the serious dangers of
being exposed to superheated radioactive particles... Sergiy
(Zbitsev) says more big wildfires in Chernobyl like the one in 1992
would be catastrophic for Ukraine's image, and potentially
devastating for farmland right across Europe. (2)

During
a recent visit near the exclusion zone and the heavily contaminated
areas of Southern Belarus, I wanted to have a closer look on trees
and how they were affected by the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. I had
read in several studies, especially in Nesterenko & Yablokov's
“Consequences of Chernobyl on Environment (N.Y Academy of Sciences
2008) that even in trees far away from the powerplant in Ukraine,
Belarus and Russia, the affect of radiation can be seen directly with
a different color of the year ring in the tree trunk, showing that
the tree's growth rate and biological circle were heavily affected bt
the incident. Incidentally, trees outside of the heavily contaminated
areas of Southern Belarus show the same characteristics as the trees
that were studied by Nesterenko and Yablokov: The year 1986 is in
most trees visible and from that period their growth and the color of
their stem changes dramatically. On the following pictures this can
be observed very well:

Sonntag, 1. Juli 2012

On Wednesday, a new
videoscope of the basement of the crippled reactor 1 at the Fukushima
Dai'chi Nuclear power plant showed disturbingly high levels of
radiation. Japanese engineers inserted a camera trough the
canalization system into the basement. Just above the radioactive
waters, the engineers measured an alarming high level of 10300
milisieverts/hours. In this environment, means a Japanese nuclear
power plant worker would reach his year limit within 15 to 20
seconds. 20 to 30 minutes would be enough to render a perfectly
healthy adult very sick. Symptoms of acute radiation sickness would
appear resulting in death by heart or multiple organ failure. Tepco
announced yesterday that the other accidented units 2 and 3 don't
show such a high level of radiation. Nevertheless over 1 Sievert
(1000milisievert/h) have been measured in outside these units. Tepco announced that the demolition and clean up of the crippled reactors might take up to 50 years.

But also 70km away from Fukushima, a study shows high radioactive pollution of children's playgrounds(*) with up to 100 000 BQ/kg, again demonstrating how radiation has spread all over Japan. Samples were taken from Kashiwa and Saga-City playgrounds.

Meanwhile the biggest Japanese Anti-Nuclear and civil protests and demonstrations since the 1960s are rallying up to 200'000people. Protesters showed their anger about the Government's decision to restart nuclear reactors. However the protest is met by a country and region wide media blackout:

Sonntag, 20. Mai 2012

For
a long time, not much had been know about the 1957
Nuclear incident inMayak in the Ural Mountains
of central Russia. The incident which many scientists have ruled as
one of the worst in history continues to cause many problems in the
concerned region.

I spoke with Nadezha Kutepova, Russian environmentalist, sociologist and lawyer born in Ozersk one of the many cities in the Chelyabinsk region, most affected by the Mayak incident. As founder and director of the "Planeta Nadezhd" (engl. Planet of Hopes) NGO, Nadezha Kutepova has lead many court cases and supported over 100 victims and their families for recognition in the Chelyabinsk region, but also in front of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. She is the laureate of the 2011 "Nuclear Free Future Award".

The
1957 incident was the first important accident in the Nuclear Age.
For nearly 30 years it was covered up by the Soviet Union? What
happened in Mayak and how could the USSR cover up this event for so
long?

September
29, 1957 underground tank with high level of liquid radioactive waste
exploded in Ozersk (former name Chelyabinsk-65), where Mayak nuclear
plant is situated. 20 billions curie of radioactivity in atmosphere
and area 23 000 sq.km was contaminated. Officially, information
about accident of 1957 was opened only after Chernobyl accident, the
reason is the Soviet Government kept secret because nuclear
production was a “state secret”. I know that also US American
Government had known information about this accident exactly after
the accident. The US Government just began to transform military
nuclear program to nuclear energy and NPPs, for them was unprofitable
that anybody knows about consequences and will be protest against
«safe nuclear energy”. My father was victim of this accident, he
lived at Sverdlovsk and was mobilized to do the clean up job after
accident aged 18, he had terrible cancer as consequences of clean up
job and died from it when I was 13.

You
yourself were born in the contaminated area in the Chelyabinsk
region. Can you tell us about your experience of growing up in that
region?

From
one side it was usual life of usual child in provincial soviet city.
I have never known anything about nuclear contamination until 1990
year. When information was opened for publicity. From another side I
was born and grow up in closed city – soldiers defended our city
with fence with border wires and when I was leaving it during summer
vacation – parents always reminded me do not tell anybody from each
city I am from for reason of state secret and threat of prison.

Still
today many people suffer from the consequences of the incident. What
are the problems of the people you support? How do you help
them?

As
human rights lawyer I regularly make legal consultations for people
of my region, I identify problems, find ways how to defend them and
defend them in different levels, including local or regional
authority, local or regional court and also European court of human
rights.

How
are officials responding to the efforts of you and your organization?
Is there a problem of arbitrariness in the Justice system?

Ever
2 years ago, me and my NGO had terrible pressure from state and
intimidation. Now the situation is a little bit better, I am advisor
of regional ombudsman and our region has new and young Government.
Problems that occurred are for example if is it defense of
human and social rights, it is little bit easier than to defense
environmental rights or human right in closed city. But I also
have threats from officials for example for our "Techa river
case", where we prove contamination of Techa and try to obligate
"Rosatom" and Government to build sarcophagus and isolate
Techa river because regional Government want to receive huge taxes
from Mayak for import of nuclear spent fuel from foreign countries,
but our activity about Techa river for opinion of regional
Government does not allow for Mayak to take NSF and restricts region
of taxes of Mayak. They demand to stop any anti-nuclear activity.

I
can’t to tell that there is problem of arbitrariness in the Justice
system, I can say about pressure of officials for Justice System. It
looks so – usually court takes law’s position of official party
not the side of applicants, it means that law and facts has no
meaning for court, only position of officials.

What
are the main challenges for the next decade in the Chelyabinsk area?

I
can tell about main environmental problems in a summary:

1.
Mayak nuclear contamination

2.
Karabash steel’s production contamination

3.
Chelyabinsk steel’s production contamination l

According
to new studies, broken pipes and bad maintenance at the Mayak
facility have contaminated probably for many decades the grounds and
rivers like the "Tetcha"? Can the real amplitude of Mayak
actually be measured?

Yes
it is true, Techa is most dirty nuclear river, I think now we can
name it "open storage of nuclear waste". I think also we
will never know about real amplitude of Mayak, we have only little
part opened information. Mayak and "Rosatom" resistances.
They hide everything what they can . As, I told above we began court
proceeding against Russian government and Rosatom to isolate Techa,
because still 3 villages with more than 3000 people live near Techa
and use water for every day needs. Court make it very slowly, try by
different ways to stop it, but we continue. For example we could
receive Judgment of former director of Mayak with dates of Prosecutor
that Mayak spilled nuclear waste even in 2004! Earlier "Rosatom"
lied that they finished the clean-up work in 1962. If we can do it
and will win the case, we can finally to isolate Techa, will move
people and create evacuation zone.

What
can I do, or interested people outside of Russia to help the victims
of Mayak? Where can we find information and how can we help?

Montag, 23. April 2012

For many months now, the first reports, studies and peer reviews have been published on the issue of health effects of the Fukushima-Dai'ichi disaster. Especially children are the most affected of radiation sicknesses and diseases such as thyroid problems, acute cardiovascular diseases, cancers, lumps and irrefutable cell damage, because their immune systems are not fully developed. A study conducted in the Fukushima prefecture on 3375 children showed:

"Total number of children tested: 3765No. of children found with lumps 5.1 millimeters and larger: 26 (0.7% of total)No. of children found with lumps smaller than 5.1 millimeters: 1117 (29.7% of total)1143 children, or 30.4% of children tested, were found with lumps of varying sizes. 26 children (0.7%) have been found with lumps with 5.1 millimeters or larger in diameter, and will go through further testing [at some time]. However, Shunichi Yamashita, the head of the commission and the vice president of Fukushima Medical University explains, "There is no malignant change due to the nuclear plant accident". Of 3739 children who will not need further testing (99.3% of children tested), 1117 children (29.7%) have been found with lumps 5.0 millimeters or less in diameter. But the prefectural government has decided they are "benign". (1)

Already last year, in May 2011 Satoshi Tashiro, senior professor of the Hiroshima University had discovered in 550 out of 1100 children's thyroids high and health threatening levels of radiation, up to 0,1 - 0,2 mSv/ h. (2) Regarding the fact that especially children are extremely vulnerable to radiation because their immune system is not yet fully developed and that they are irradiated and exposed to highly radioactive sources of radiation, and contaminated by local food, dust and water, we must unfortunately be ready to predict a high number of children cancers and genetic defects over the next decades, probably worse then Chernobyl. But also unborn life is severely affected by radiation: Examiner.com resumed the risks and threats very well in an article from June 2011:

"In the ultimate nuclear nightmare scenario now unfolding, Japanese local newspapers have attributed sickness in children to Fukushima's nuclear meltdowns, the radioactive levels now elevated throughout eastern Japan. Children over 32 miles from ground zero are suffering fatigue, diarrhea, and nosebleeds, the three most common of eight radiation sickness signs, the three in the earliest stage Tokyo Shinbun newspaper reported that many Japanese children have "inexplicable" symptoms. Each symptom described are among the first experienced with radiation sickness. Japan is dangerously contaminated by radioactivity over a far larger area than previously reported by TEPCO and the central government according to new reports from multiple sources," the Daily Kos reported. The prefectural government of Iwate released new data that shows radioactive contamination of grass exceeds safety standards at a distance of 90 to 125 miles from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants.Children become radiated when they drink milk and eat dairy products from cows feeding on radioactive grass, even at low levels according to the world's foremost anti-nuclear campaigner, Dr. Helen Caldicott, and other independent scientists. Radioactive materials concentrate in milk" and many other food products. (5)

Pediatricians around Japan but mostly in a 200km radius around Fukushima report of more and more children attended by radiation sickness and describing the typical symptoms:

" Tomoyuki Yamazaki, a Japanese doctor ... in Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan who provides medical counseling at the information center every month, said in an email to ENInews that an increasing number of children he has seen “have nosebleeds that don’t stop, diarrhea, dark circles under their eyes, and incurable stomatitis [an inflammation of the mucous linings in the mouth]. A growing number of children [at the centre] have pains in their chests.” [...] (6)

The fear and growing rumors of miscarriages have been denied by the government although first analysis and statistics point in a different direction. The University of Fukushima disinforms the public by telling them that currently 28 pregnancies in Fukushima are resulting in a miscarriage out of 100 , but that would be a rather normal number. One third of the pregnancies ending in a miscarriage an this is supposed to be normal? The disinformation these days doesn't seem to know any limits. (7) Another less acadamical but interesting report came from the Morning-TV of AsahiTV. Apparently, mutations are also visible in botanic life: Reporters claimed that many mutations in flowers and plants have occurred and showed images of mutated dandelions. (8) The disinformation from the government takes unprecedented levels of absurdity. Sebastian Pflugbeil, a respected German Nuclear Expert and chairman of the Society for Radiation Protection, visited the Fukushima area and was shocked to find a beauty pageant in Fukushima for the prettiest girl who ate only food from Fukushima area. This pageant was supported and sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture. (9) The typical eye-swelling especially in small children has also occured in Fukushima and surrounding areas. Swollen red eyes, as observed in Chernobyl are a typical symptom of thyroid disorder and have been reported in Japan especially by parents whose children played in contaminated sand boxes or playgrounds. (10)

Leukemia cases and fear of Leukemia in Japan is on the rise. A senior Japanese journalist, covering the Fukushima case since march 2011 developed acute lymphocytic leukemia and died after 3 weeks (3). In a recent survey a lot of Japanese people show they are preoccupied about becoming sick and scientist talk about a massive psychotic disorder caused by both the accident and the coverup by Japanese authorities:

"Despite the fact that the Japanese government and TEPCO were caught red-handed underplaying the severity of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, a study has found that almost a quarter of Fukushima residents hospitalized in the aftermath of last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami were treated as having a “psychiatric disorder” because of their concerns over radiation. The phenomenon of authorities underplaying the threat posed by radiation or even characterizing concerns over it as a mental illness has become a dominant theme since the catastrophe just over a year ago. This is despite the fact that Japanese authorities were caught over and over again lying to cover-up the true scale of the disaster.“Some 24.4 percent of people who were hospitalized in Fukushima with psychiatric disorders in the wake of the outbreak of the crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had done so possibly because of fears of radiation exposure, according to the results of research conducted by psychiatrists at Fukushima Medical University,”reports the Mainichi Daily News" (11)

After 13 months, the whole impact of the catastrophe is yet far from being measurable. The fact that still 3 reactors are out of control and 6 spent fuel pools are beyond repair does however predict a rather pessimistic future.

Mittwoch, 11. April 2012

On April 5th, 2 fires
in reactor 2, in the French Nuclear Power Plant “Penly” provoked
a radioactive leak in the primary pumping system releasing 2300 litres
of radioactive cooling water per hour. In a first reaction, Bruno Chareyron,
senior researcher at the independent nuclear institute CRIRAAD
announced that the accident is to be taken very seriously. A serious
damage in the primary circuit on the pumping system that allows the
reactor to be cooled down is a very serious matter. He asks how is it
possible to have a malfunctioning pump with oil leaks, and what is
the cause of it? Poor maintenance or low quality material?
Furthermore the French Nuclear Safety Agency ASN has not yet
commentated on the health state of both firefighters and workers who
intervened at the NPP Penly. They can very well protect themselves
against radioactive contamination but not against the irradiation
from the source. In the case of Penly, regarding the fact that highly
radioactive cooling water containing many sorts of radioactive
isotopes escaped from the primary system, the irradiation of the
workers and firefighters must have heen important. Furthermore the
question of the consequences for the environment have not (yet) been
addressed by French authorities:
EDF,
who exploit the NPP Penly reassured that all of the leaking water was
caught in special buckets. The question remains how much more these
containers could have retained if the leak had not been stopped.
These waters will be treated and most probably thrown into the ocean.
Knowing that tritium cannot be processed, an important tritium amount
will thus be liberated into the Channel. (The nuclear power plant in
Penly has already a certificate issued by ASN to drop 72 000 000 000
000 bequerels per year into the Channel) Saying that the impact on
the environment is not a risk, is thus a very quick and false
conclusion by French authorities. In the next weeks and months it is
up to the authorities and also us to check if the tritium readings in
the Channel by have substantially risen or not. In another reaction
Greenpeace France calls for an immediate stop of all French Nuclear
reactors and an urgent petitions EDF and ASN to quickly check all the
pumping systems in the “French nuclear park”. The French blog “Le
Blog de Fukushima” has published an not really scientific nor
representative but yet interesting map of the fallout of Chernobyl
and Fukushima applied to Penly. Possible scenarios would imply the
evacuation of Bruges, Brussels, London, Eindhoven, Amsterdam,
Luxembourg, Paris, or important parts of France's Northern seaboard,
South East England or entire countries like Belgium or Luxembourg.

Penly,
was without any doubt a very close call. Another near accident
happened several weeks ago in the South Korean nuclear power plant in
Kori the country's oldest station. The incident itself had been
kept in the dark for several weeks before South Korean authorities
decided to publish it. On February 9th
2012, the reactor was shut down for inspection. After that, the whole
reactor system lost all power and diesel generators failed. The
plant was without power for 12 minutes. This is a very serious
incident. Electricity failures and problems with energy supply are
the most critical events that can happen at a station: No power
meaning that neither the reactor can be cooled nor can the chain
reaction be controlled. After 12 minutes the electricity in Kori was
restored and the workers could stabilize the reactor. One doesn't
want to imagine what could have happened in South Korea if the
workers hadn't had managed to reestablish the energy supply.

What
do these incidents teach us? Especially the incident in Penly shows
us that the E.U stress tests did not improve the security of French
nuclear power stations. The disastrous state of some plants remain
the same. A serious incident seems in France likely and only a matter
of time.

Dienstag, 27. März 2012

The "Atomic Age" is definitely over. So over. 1 year after the Fukushima
meltdowns and reactor catastrophes, Japan and important parts could be literally standing on the edge of a razor blade. Not only 4
crippled reactors are still posing an immense health threat, but also
the 6 spent fuel basins on the site of the Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, with spent uranium rods are heavily damaged
and are considered by international experts as a huge problem. A new
earthquake could very well damage the spent fuel pools and lead to
massive leaks of both radioactive materials and cooling water into
the ground water and Pacific, but furthermore an uncontrolled chain
reaction triggered by the used fuel could mean the end of Japan as we
know it today, and trigger a catastrophe of epic proportion. This is not a
panicky wake up call, but a desperate description of the
situation in Fukushima as it presents itself today. What makes the
spent fuel pools in the case of Fukushima so dangerous:

...the
spent fuel rod pools that sit right next door to the reactors. The
storage pools are packed with radioactive uranium, rise several
stories above ground and are always close to the reactor, thus
facilitating easy transfer of the fuel rods. Their name— especially
“spent” and “pool”— conveys calm dissipation. But spent
fuel rod pools are actually highly radioactive, very unstable,
extremely dangerous and, compared with reactors, not well supported,
contained or looked over. The
spent rods give off considerable amounts of “decay heat” and thus
must be submerged in constantly circulating water. Expose them to air
for a day or two, and they begin to combust, giving off large amounts
of radioactive cesium-137, a very toxic, long-lasting, aggressively
penetrating radioactive element with a half-life of thirty years.
When cesium-137 it enters the environment, it essentially acts like
potassium and is taken up by plants and animals that use
potassium....(The Nation, C. Parenti 15.03.2012)

The
spent fuel pools are situated in the reactor bulding on one of the
top floors. We know from the satellite fixes that most roofs of the 4
reactors have collapsed and smoke is still evaporating from the
spent-fuel level. This can only lead to the conclusion that the water
in the spent-fuel pools is evaporating or worse boiling. Once the cooling waters gone, the used fuel will just catch fire and thus create a chain
reaction, a heavy chain reaction in open air, like an open-air reactor, making it impossible to
work on any of the other crippled reactors and thus provoking chain
reactions in the other fuel tanks and reactors on the Dai-chi site. German State
television ZDF recently called this scenario "likely to happen". If that would be the case they had found a word to describe it "Armageddon". Japan would thus cease to exist as we know
it today. Chernobyl would be a scratch in comparison to a multiple open-air meltdown & chain reaction, and disturbingly, the Dai-ichi Fukushima Plant has enough material to match up this disaster:

... the
spent fuel pools are of significant concern, Marvin Resnikoff, a
radioactive waste management consultant, said in a Wednesday press
briefing organized by the nonprofit organization Physicians for
Social Responsibility. Resnikoff noted that the pools at each reactor
are thought to have contained the following amounts of spent fuel,
according to Mainichi
Daily News:

The fuel pools are already in a desolate state in reactor 4's spent fuel pools, evaporation and steam could be seen for months now. Ant the spent fuel pools are even visible from outside. The roof has supposedly collapsed. The blueish area on the center of the picture is the spent fuel pool (c) D. Gutterfelder, AP

The spent fuel pool can be seen from the crane. On this picture TEPCO took a sample measuring both the temperature and isotopes found in the pool. Note the steam on the right side of the picture.(c) TEPCO / Reuters

What personally strikes me most are metaphysical and sheer existentialist questions, that nuclear energy confronts us with: Not only have we to provide security and stability for the waste of the power plants for more than 200'000 years, that's over 6000 generations, the only human activity that forces us to think in such numbers, but Fukushima could very well be the first time that nuclear energy threatens the integrity of a whole country and region. It is time to end this. And we can, without further ado! Not tomorrow, but now. Japan has only 1 reactor left in operating mode, 53 are now shut down. China is reviewing their plans of massively building new reactors, even if they are far from perfect, the European stress tests triggered more protests all over the continent. A quick exit is possible in most countries. It is this generation's duty to end the "Atomic Age" or it will end us. This is not a cheesy and pathetic end to an article but a last wake up call, for an industry and political class that failed to learned the lessons from Mayak, Three Mile Island, Sellafield and Chernobyl.

Mittwoch, 21. März 2012

Dear readers,I decided to post a vast link collection of the hottest news from last week around the Fukushima Dai-ichi incident with small annotations. Thank you, Good reading, keep up the good fight,yours, Philippe Schockweiler

Bloomberg, 18-3-2012Food (in)security in Japan: 1% of the controls in comparision with Belarus & Chernobyl... Inadequate testing by the government of rice, milk and fish from the region has prompted consumers to leave them on supermarket shelves and instead select produce from other regions or from overseas. Checks conducted nationwide so far are only 1 percent of what Belarus checked in the past year, a quarter century after the Chernobyl disaster, according to Nobutaka Ishida, a researcher at Norinchukin Research Institute...http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-03-19/fukushima-farmers-face-decades-of-tainted-crops-as-fears-linger.html

Bloomberg 18-3-2012Devastating Impact of Fukushima Disaster on Japanese Farmers: ... Almost 100,000 farmers lost about 58 billion yen ($694 million) by March 1, or 25 percent of production, according to JA, the country’s biggest agricultural group. Imports of farm products jumped 16 percent to 5.58 trillion yen in 2011, according to the agriculture ministry...

The Yomiuri Shibun, 18-3-2012Radioactive Plankton found 600km away from Fukushima... The research team collected animal plankton at 17 locations between 30 kilometers and 600 kilometers east of the plant in June last year, about three months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear crisis. Cesium-137 was detected in all of the collected plankton, which in a dry state was found to contain 0.3 to 56.4 becquerels per kilogram. The farther away the plankton was collected, the less radiation it contained, according to the team...http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120317003393.htm

Fukushima Diary, 16-3-2012Reactortype of Fukushima: Problems known since the 1980'sIn the 1980's simulations showed catastrophic results in the GE-Mk1 reactor (the one used in Fukushima) during meltdowns & accidents.http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/03/corium-may-have-been-penetrated-15-hours-after-meltdown/

Japanese Investigation Committee for the Accident in Fukushima, 15-3-2012Tepco still waits with the final report - only preliminary conclusions published!http://icanps.go.jp/eng/interim-report.html

Yomiuri Shibun, 16-3-2012High Concentration of Caesium in Japanese wildlife! Rabbits contaminated with 560bq/kg above safe limit! More and more studies show the devastating effect of the incident on Japanese wild- and naturelife.http://www.yomidr.yomiuri.co.jp/page.jsp?id=56043

Kyodo News, 15-3-2012Difficult task to remove spent fuel from reactor.Chaotic state of the reactor makes it (nearly) impossible to decommission the plant properly.http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/03/147327.html

Dr. Helen Caldicott Interview, 15-3-2012Nobel Prize Nominee claims: Very early and high number of lumps in thyroid with Fukushima children.A phenomenon seldomly observed that a nuclear incident causes so many lumps and complications only one year after the catastrophe.http://greenacreradio.blogspot.de/2012/03/march-15-2012-lessons-from-fukushima-dr.html

Chernobyl was a single reactor running at about 7 percent capacity when rupture ... [Fukushima] had three reactors running at 100 percent capacity and seven other reactors with spent fuel pools that were crippled

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-03/12/content_14814975.htm

French Nuclear Experts: Risk of Explosion in Fukushima still imminent! 14-3-2012via France 24:

Good Night, and Good Luck!

Human-, Environmental-, and Animal-rights activist. Now Specializing in Nuclear Issues.
Former Spokesperson Luxembourg Young Greens 2006-2012
Former Member Executive Committee Luxembourg Green Party
Executive Committee Member FYEG - Federation of Young European Greens 2012 - now